Rick--i too have reccomended products made by a friend---but they really are good!!!And i really do like and use them.And i really dont make any money if you go there and spend!An honest reccomendation is just that---a free ad,especially one that is made to look like its not---is another matter altogether. The fact of the matter is that MOST of us, KNOW when we are doing somthing we shouldnt be doing. Were you doing that when you mentioned your friends product? I dont think so!

There is a huge difference between reccommending a product or place that you can personally choose vs a bias self promotion. How could the BBQ dude not be bias? It is his place and his money. There would be no credibility with his post.

Rick, IMHO, it's cool recommending a product you like, whether you know the owner or not.

And I think tiki is referring to Loveras. I'm going to recommend this place for him; I've ordered from there a few times since tiki spoke about it last fall. I even ordered one of the food baskets for my sister for Christmas. http://www.loveras-italian.com/

Rick, I agree with the others. Anything that can help in our Roadfood quest is a blessing. Now, buy my vintage hula hoops.

On another note, it is also bad to think you are a nepotist just because you like a friend's work. I had a friend who was an assistant curator at a museum in Connecticut. During an open-air competition, she did not take the judges to see my work. I was speaking casually with one of the judges right before the awards were decided. He was surprised to learn I was showing, and he wanted to see my work. I won the museum first prize, and they bought one of my paintings for the museum. Moral: friends can be just as much of a hinderance as a help.

What I find curious is that I made several attempts to post a review of one of my favorite places, along with pictures and full details, and it never took.

Edwaste, what do you mean that your review never took? Did you have a technical problem? I have posted three reviews so far. I had some minor issues that needed to be resolved a couple of times and my review got delayed, but my reviews were always posted.

Rick, IMHO, it's cool recommending a product you like, whether you know the owner or not.

And I think tiki is referring to Loveras. I'm going to recommend this place for him; I've ordered from there a few times since tiki spoke about it last fall. I even ordered one of the food baskets for my sister for Christmas. http://www.loveras-italian.com/

They have possibly the best bottled Italian dressing I've ever had.

Thanks for the comments on Lovera's---i will pass on your comments--its will be appereciated---btw--i happen to agree wiith ypou on the dressing---you should taste it fresh at the house!!!!!

Service was excellent particularly Sandy. Place was crowded for a Saturday noon lunch.

Ribs were between very tender to hard and chewy, pork chopped or pulled was tasty and beef pulled was OK. They had a whole collection of hot sauces and had two types of BBQ sauce. The sweet was the best.

The owner was not present during my visit.

For Cleveland Tennessee, probably pretty good but for folks that are use to good BBQ, this ain't your place.

I remind folks that this was in my opinion only. I am not a expert in BBQ and I only know what I like. It appears that the place is well run and profitable

Service was excellent particularly Sandy. Place was crowded for a Saturday noon lunch.

Ribs were between very tender to hard and chewy, pork chopped or pulled was tasty and beef pulled was OK. They had a whole collection of hot sauces and had two types of BBQ sauce. The sweet was the best.

The owner was not present during my visit.

For Cleveland Tennessee, probably pretty good but for folks that are use to good BBQ, this ain't your place.

I remind folks that this was in my opinion only. I am not a expert in BBQ and I only know what I like. It appears that the place is well run and profitable

Paul E. SmithKnoxville, TN

Sundancer, If my thrifting travels ever take me to Cleveland, Tennessee, I will be sure to try the place. It sounds serviceable (you aren't going to starve there) but not worth even a detour from McDonald, which is,like, 11 miles down the road. It is surely not Sternable by any stretch of the imagination. Unhungrily (At The Moment: Things Do Change), Ort. Carlton in Athens, Georgia.

I'll add here that I personally only want to see reviews of places that were/are good.

I realize that the number of mediocre and bad restaurants out there greatly outnumbers the good ones, but figure why waste space posting a review here unless at least one person has foudn it to be of very good (or better) quality.

My ongoing assumption about this site is that only the upper echelon in terms of food quality are listed here, while acknowleging that quality will wax or wane over time at a given restaurant...

That said, since the one real review so far has said the food is mediocre at best, I'd also prefer to see the review dropped.

1) I'm not a moderator, just in case you may have thought I was, I'm just a reader and poster, same as you.

2) I'm not advocating censorship of the forums. People should discuss anything (withi topical boundaries, which are pretty broad, imho) they want within those confines, including 'such and such a restaurant was not good, service bad, food not fresh' and etc. And people do.

3) What I am advocating is that only the upper echelon of restaurants get actual posted Reviews with pics. I look to the reviews for the gems, the rare finds, the hidden regional treasures - and for the most part, that's what you'll find there. I just don't see the need for the mediocre and poor restaurants to appear there - I can find those in abundance all over America. That's what originally came to this site to find, and I think that's what most people expect to find there.

I'm not sure how much clearer someone can be than to say that they own "my place" in the review and then invite people to come sample it. That doesn't seem like deception to me.

Steve, in the review, he did not state it was his place. He wrote it as if he were a customer. The only way JiminKY knew that it was indeed written by the owner, was because he has said as such on the fora. It was when this was pointed out that the review got deleted. A review on the fora and a Review in the Roadfood database are two different things. I think if he had stated as such in his review for the database, the people that run the site might have been more forgiving of it.